'Huge mistake to play France friendly', says Scotland's Go

[D.A.F.C]

Some new ideas in there, surprised I've not seen them discussed on here before

I know, I've heard it before too. There is no other option, we must invest in youth teams and change the entire culture of coaching.

Thundering into tackles, playing big guys and playing on full size pitches doesn't promote skill and individuality.

The entire coaching mindset is wrong.

There are some positives like Hamilton, Falkirk, Livvy, Hibs and Celtic youth we need to get academies producing players like this and selling them onto English sides to develop. Play them at national level with the same system from u16s upwards to the national side.

It's cliched but other countries have done it and it works.

[TheScarf]

We need someone who can get the best out of what we have Northern Ireland seem to have that and they haven't got any exceptional players.

 

Exactly.  Michael O'Neill is proving he is fantastic at getting a group of players, a group worse than what Scotland have, playing in a way that brings goals and ultimately, results.

 

Something Strachan can't do IMO.  He talks about 'progress'.  I haven't seen any.  And I, like most people I'm sure, measure progress on results.  Finishing bottom of what was effectively a 4 team group should've seen him sacked.

[Gaviliunas]

Poland have a far better squad than scotland, no idea why people pretend otherwise. Also the whole " aye but who else is there likesay " arguments shite, there are thousands of managers around the world it's the sfas job to look them out.

[Thumper]

Compared to Levein he's still the reincarnation of Arrigo Sacchi. But I'd honestly punt him just for taking money from the Daily Record.

[AMMjag]

It's tradition for any Scotland manager to spout utter shite in the Daily Record while a major tournament is taking place.

[Thumper]

It's tradition for any Scotland manager to spout utter shite in the Daily Record while a major tournament is taking place.

 

My understanding was that things which it is traditional for the Scotland national football team to do are things generally to be avoided at all cost. Particularly the tradition of the last eighteen - f**k me, eighteen - years.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

The restrictive selection policy for Scotland needs to go and until it does we will get nowhere

[Savage Henry]

The restrictive selection policy for Scotland needs to go and until it does we will get nowhere

The what now?

[Monkey Tennis]

I can see where you are coming from dude but I'm happy to give him the first couple of games & take it from there.

We have a recent history of giving a failed manager enough of the next campaign to ensure we can't qualify, before sacking them. It happened with Vogts and it happened with Levein. The exception was Burley who got ditched after friendly results between campaigns - perhaps there's a parallel with the current situation.

I think that allowing Strachan to lead us into the next qualifiers would be a mistake.

[No_Problemo]

Interesting article in the Sunday Mail with Charlie Adam, basically complaining about the hypocrisy of Strachan's statements. I don't ever think Adam should be a starter but he's a useful player to bring on as a sub if we are struggling to keep a hold of the ball.

I also always assumed that Bardsley isn't interested in playing for us anymore but according to Adam he is also disappointed not to be involved. Bizarre as he is a better option defensively than Hutton.

[Monkey Tennis]

Its his constant whinging about our lack of "world-class" talent that really gets to me.  How about shutting the f**k up and focusing on trying to get the best out of what we have.  I dont see the coaches of countries like Albania or N Ireland complaining and look where they are.  He's had his chance and failed miserably, time to get shot of him.

He's actually become a parody of himself now with quite how willingly he reminds us and the players of how shite they are. It's ludicrously self defeating. Balance is obviously required, but the psychology of behaving in such a way is terrible.

Apart from being unduly negative, it's also wildly overstated. Something was published last week that said if the current Scotland were at these finals we would have the twelfth most expensive squad there.

Now that's a crude and imperfect measure. It's maybe skewed a bit by the fact that we neighbour the inflated market in England. It does however highlight that whilst not very good or boasting huge stars, we are no worse off in this regard than many, many sides.

It's not an excuse that Strachan has any right to be attempting to make such play of.

[Mad Capsule]

Something was published last week that said if the current Scotland were at these finals we would have the twelfth most expensive squad there.

Is that based on transfer fees? Considering his unwilling to play Charlie Adam, that should bring it down quite a bit.

[Monkey Tennis]

Is that based on transfer fees? Considering his unwilling to play Charlie Adam, that should bring it down quite a bit.

Something similar could be said of Rhodes.

It was based on transfer fees I think. As I said, it's skewed and crude as a measuring instrument, but it does show that we've a few guys who've moved for several million.

Lots of teams don't have as much of that.

[Mr Tourette]

The Republic of Ireland and Poland both got out of our group, which may be the best chance we get to qualify for anything in decades. The Republic of Ireland and Poland are not better squads than Scotland. Strachan's squad underperformed.

The idea that nobody could do better with those players is self serving and false.

Poland's squad is not better than ours? They have players in all positions playing for clubs such as Roma, Borussia Dortmund, Fiorentina, Sevilla, Bayern Munich and Ajax. We haven't had any one capable of getting a game at any of these standard of clubs for at least 15 years. The last ones were Lambert, Collins and McAllister

[Savage Henry]

Poland's squad is not better than ours? They have players in all positions playing for clubs such as Roma, Borussia Dortmund, Fiorentina, Sevilla, Bayern Munich and Ajax. We haven't had any one capable of getting a game at any of these standard of clubs for at least 15 years. The last ones were Lambert, Collins and McAllister

 

They have more star players, no question.  As a collective unit, they're no better than Scotland.  We're seeing against Northern Ireland that they have some not-very-good-players and aren't a terribly incisive team.    Scotland are substantially better than Northern Ireland, would you not agree?

 

There's no point running Scotland down.  They've got talent in that squad.  And frankly, they're going to have to play above themselves if they are ever going to qualify for anything ever again.  

[HibeeJibee]

We have a recent history of giving a failed manager enough of the next campaign to ensure we can't qualify, before sacking them. It happened with Vogts

 

Vogts got us to the play-offs and won the first leg v the Netherlands. Strachan got us to 4th in a group of 6.

[Monkey Tennis]

Vogts got us to the play-offs and won the first leg v the Netherlands. Strachan got us to 4th in a group of 6.

We've done this.

There was nothing remotely impressive in what happened under Vogts. In reaching that play-off, we didn't have to finish above a single side who had then graced the finals of a tournament, ever.

And then of course, we had what happened in the second leg of the play-off itself.

Vogts failed and it was a mistake to let him start the qualifiers for the next World Cup. It left us too much to do when Smith took over.

[ScotSquid]

We have a recent history of giving a failed manager enough of the next campaign to ensure we can't qualify, before sacking them. It happened with Vogts and it happened with Levein. The exception was Burley who got ditched after friendly results between campaigns - perhaps there's a parallel with the current situation.I think that allowing Strachan to lead us into the next qualifiers would be a mistake.

Agreed. He should have gone after the last campaign. Problem we have now is that qualifying for the World Cup is miles out of our reach. So what do we do when he fails there? Bring in someone new just in time for the Euro 2020 qualifiers which we must succeed in.

Keeping Strachan is an error.

[invergowrie arab]

Agreed. He should have gone after the last campaign. Problem we have now is that qualifying for the World Cup is miles out of our reach. So what do we do when he fails there? Bring in someone new just in time for the Euro 2020 qualifiers which we must succeed in.

Keeping Strachan is an error.

This is McNamara all over again. So many Arabs said give him a few months and if he fails bin him. He has already failed.

Strachan has got us some decent results, albeit rarely when it mattered, but if anything has regressed since a decent start with some very unScotland attacking football.

[TheScarf]

This is McNamara all over again. So many Arabs said give him a few months and if he fails bin him. He has already failed.

Strachan has got us some decent results, albeit rarely when it mattered, but if anything has regressed since a decent start with some very unScotland attacking football.

 

Indeed, winning friendlies at home to Denmark or North Ireland mean fucking nothing if you end up 4th in your qualifying group when the competitive games come around.  When I watch Scotland under Strachan they play exactly the same as they did under Burley and Levein. There was been zero progress in either performance or results.